So Far, Not So Good – 16 Lakh Package Is False

Disclaimer – It is our sincere hope that it is in this spirit that the post is received. Please note that this post DOES NOT reflect the opinions held by Libertatem Magazine, nor are we equipped to offer an opinion of such nature. All opinions expressed are those of the anonymous author.

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Dear Ahmedabad Mirror,

It was really surprising for the students and fresh graduates of Institute of Law, Nirma University to read an article in the Ahmedabad Mirror titled ‘Nirma Law Grad Offered Rs 16L salary‘ which has been linked for your reference.

16 Lakhs package is imaginary

Libertatem Magazine went ahead to have a conversation with Mr. Alind Chopra who (as claimed by Ahmedabad Mirror) bagged the package of Rs. 16 lakh per annum.

Alind Chopra says

“I had interned twice with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and was thereafter given a PPO. The Campus Recruitment Committee had no role to play in my placement. Furthermore, I am surprised that the package disclosed is 16 lakhs as I have not been told my package yet.”

(Alind Chopra’s exclusive interview is scheduled to release in a few days where he speaks about his hard work during the college days, internships and job at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas. Stay tuned.)

Misrepresented story reported by Ahmedabad Mirror on 12th May

The major concern here is for the CLAT aspirants who have recently taken the CLAT 2017 exam and might, after reading such misrepresented and factually incorrect story, consider such good placements a primary factor for choosing to take admission in this college instead of another. It makes one realize how undervalued the responsibility of shaping the future of this nation has become today; how ethics has been eroded off the ‘nation’s leading media conglomerate’.

Ahmedabad Mirror’s misrepresented reporting

It would be no exaggeration to predict that the misinformed students who have just taken the CLAT exam would choose this institution over other colleges thinking that this college has an excellent placement record, which is backed by the sensationally fabricated reports of the Newspaper. A fair number of law aspirants had been victims of similar deception 5 years ago owing to a news report stating “Nirma girls bag the highest package for law students”. Surprisingly, the story was covered by the same Ahmedabad Mirror.

Rs.34 lakhs package story reported by Ahmedabad Mirror back in 2012

For those who do not remember the news on a placement of Rs.34 lakh per annum back in 2012, the news clipping is attached hereunder to refresh memories.

The Story published by Ahmedabad Mirror back in 2012 which attracted a majority of the 2017 match students towards ILNU. Based on this news clipping, 2017 batch students opted for ILNU over other prestigious institutions.

It seems Ahmedabad Mirror has a flair for publishing concocted stories about ILNU’s highest package.

ILNU’s students of 2017 batch can recall this story very clearly as many of them considered Nirma University over other institutions on the basis of this news clipping. They later learned that it was an off-campus placement, acquired not through college initiative but as a Pre Placement Offer owing to the girl’s own merit. Sadly, as they say, some things never change.

The true story behind the 16 Lakhs package

Presently, only the students of ILNU are aware of the true story behind the recent placement of 16 Lakhs. Alind Chopra, who bagged the package of Rs. 16 Lakhs (which is a false figure since Alind is himself not aware of his package yet), achieved it on his own merit and not owing to any initiatives taken by ILNU’s Placement Drive. How hard he had to toil to get that job on his own and how frustrated he was at the inactivity of the Campus Recruitment Cell (CRC) of the college and the careless attitude of the administration at not having the PPO is no secret to the present students of ILNU. Owing to the fancy story covered by Ahmedabad Mirror, it appears that the Campus Recruitment Committee run by Mrs. Shailja Tripathi has belittled his entire achievement by stealing the credits and misplacing them in the name of the Placement Committee. The official truth, as disclosed from the conversation with Alind Chopra, is that he has been offered a PPO (Pre Placement Offer) but the package has not been disclosed yet.

The Placement Records for the last 3 batches

Libertatem Magazine gathered some data from the graduating batch which is revealed hereunder. As per the records provided by the CRC, only 96 students appeared and paid 5000 Rupees each for sitting in the Placements instead of 103 students as claimed by Ahmedabad Mirror, to cumulatively contribute a rough sum of Rs 5.15 lakhs.

Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad has placed 63 students of its 2015 batch in various law firms and companies.

Out of a batch of 209, 95 students opted to sit for placements, with the rest opting for litigation or higher studies. Among the law firms, Wadia Ghandy made the most hires – 3 in Mumbai and 2 in Ahmedabad. AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates, and Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan were also among the hires.

The highest salary offered was Rs. 10.5 lakhs per annum and the minimum package offered was Rs. 3 lakh.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (Off-campus Placement with no support from the College)

Alind Chopra

Placement Statistics misrepresented by Ahmedabad Mirror

It is obvious that the average package figure of Rs 5.25 lakhs is as imaginary as the highest salary of 16 lakhs. Evidently, the reporters of Ahmedabad Mirror are so bad at research that they should take researching tips from students of ILNU or should invest time in proper research before publishing their stories.

*Derived by adding up annual salary of all placed student/ number of student placed

The story by Ahmedabad Mirror also bragged about the soft skills training exercise provided by ILNU, which in reality was more of a CV building exercise that should have happened in the 2nd or 3rd year rather in the 5th year for bagging good internships. The P.I. session (Personal Interview) was more of a mockery with each interview lasting for a maximum of three minutes owing to the shortage of time. But, we should not take anything away from them. It is surprising to note that throughout the tenure of five years, the scrutiny and evaluation of the students’ internship were far more grueling wherein the students were marked down and also awarded an NT (which is a term used for “backlog” as per ILNU’s dictionary) if they did not do well. If only there was some accountability attached to the CRC run by Mrs. Shailja Tripathi, the students may have had a fair chance of questioning as to where their five thousand rupees disappeared.

Although the students have passed out and would not benefit from this but it is hoped that it might bring in few changes.

5 COMMENTS

When the students try to contact Dean of the Institute, she did not respond to the mail and firmly say that it is the responsibility of the students to get placement. However, she also did not disclose the details of the fund which they collected as the Registration Fees for Placements i.e how they used it. The CRC did not take initiative to contact with the firms and when the students try to contact CRC, they always try to make certain allegations and not cooperative with the students. In University, Institute of Technology collect only 1000 Rs. for their Placement process but Institute of Law collect Rs. 5000 for this. During the last semester, many students protest that they did not want to be contribute on the Alumni fund but the Institute did not listen and try to threat them for this. Faculties are also not proper as in Business Law Honours one of the Faculty resigned due to the Management of the Institute, so only one faculty teach 3 subjects and one faculty teach a full honours subject in just 10 days only. We students always try to protest infront of the Authorities but we our voice always curb. When we approach this misrepresentation, Institute Director issued a warning message for the students that do not try to defame the institute. I know that this step certainly harm the image of the institute but we did not have any intention to harm this. We only want that truth prevail and existing and prospective students did not suffer.

This in my understanding of the issue, I hope reading this will give you some clarity.

Problem 1 – No one wants to take the responsibility. The magazine claims that all opinions are that of an author and published the article without scrutinizing the information. Ironically the ‘anonymous author’ claims to only provide facts and no opinions but if you read the article it is full of opinions that targets an individual with no real analysis to the claims. IT IS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR THE PUBLISHER AS TO WHETHER OR NOT YOU SHOULD ALLOW A PIECE THAT HIDE IDENTITY ON PREMISE THAT IT CLAIMS TO ONLY PROVIDE FACTS AND NO OPINION BUT IT IS ACTUALLY NOT CORRECT.

Problem 2- No clarity as to what do we have a problem with?

A. Is it the fact that Ahmedabad Mirror published a story which is factually wrong? If so what is the wrong information? Was the wrong information provided by college administration or did Ahmedabad Mirror tweak facts to make their story look more appealing and eye catching?

My analysis – the report from Ahmedabad Mirror refers to a note. Assuming that note came from college administration (obvious assumption) it uses word approx. for both average placement and Alind’s placement. THEREFORE I DON’T SEE ANYTHING MALA FIED. BECAUSE HEYA! WE CAN ASSUME WHAT AN ORGANIZATION IS LIKELY TO PAY IT EMPLOYEES BASED ON CERTAIN TRENDS AND DATA. Thus I don’t see there is a problem with college coming up with approximate numbers. The problem is with the fact that Ahmedabad mirror chose to omit the word APPROX. (read Para 3 of Ahmedabad mirror report)

B. Number of students who sat for placement is it 96 or 103? Yes this is one problem I can see but unfortunately it wasn’t cared much in the article. Why? Maybe because this doesn’t create the sort of sensation, maybe this is not the lie that we are looking for? Maybe this doesn’t make college administration look as bad as we want it to be?

C. Should college talk about Alind’s placement in the way they did? Obviously yes. Did Mrs. Shaija took anything away from Alind? A definite no! (Please read the report by Ahmedabad mirror.) The college is just celebrating the success of their students and that’s something they are entitled to for the sheer investment it does both monetarily and emotionally. Do you expect college to lay out the complete procedure of CRC and non CRC placements and bifurcate this information in a 200 something word report. Are you serious?

D. Does there exist any accountability in CRC and where did your Rs. 5000 go? I think the information from CRC is already out there in the public and as far as Rs. 5000 is concerned you can ask for a detailed budget expenditure for recruitments. As far as I assume it is used for your workshops and sessions and when you will get out of your bubble you will realize these sessions cost a lot.

Yes I agree that there might be an expectation gap between students sitting for placements and CRC but making claims about competencies and character of an individual alone is not fair. I don’t agree with the fact either that college is providing misinformation to attract admissions. I think it is perfectly fair to position yourself in a way that provides you with an competitive edge and if our students are getting placed why not celebrate the same?

It is sad that placements took the pole position when it comes to deciding colleges for parents and students. It is kind of sad that an institute like Nirma can’t talk about their investment on a student in terms of how they broden your thinking by emphasizing on justice education, commitment to a culture of debate and critique etc.

I JUST HAVE A COUPLE OF REQUEST FOR MY FRIENDS IN COLLEGE.
1. Read things carefully.
2. Emphasize with people.

O! respected alum of this illustrious institute, are you really as ignorant as is portrayed through your comment or is this just some playful masquerading which is going on. I mean apart from the criminal spelling and grammatical errors that your comment is laced with, the most disappointing facet is the sheer amount of ignorance and non chalance on display-

A) The practice of publishing articles anonymously is as old as Newton’s underpants, so there is nothing wrong on part of the author or the publisher to do that. The magazine is run by students of the institute itself so they have more than enough resources for vetting and verifying the facts of the story and make sure lies are not published. (which haven’t been)

B) We can assume what an organization is going to pay? And then also go on to put it in the official press note handed over to the media when the student himself is not aware of the same? This one really chuckled me O! senior of mine, if only you knew how the procedure of reporting placement goes. Whatever happened to responsible reporting in this country, right?

C) Should they talk about segregation of PPOs and non-PPOs in the 200 word report? Of course they should, because that is exactly the kind of information that is supposed to be in a press release like that. I am sorry you are not familiar with how placement reporting works.

D) Stop talking like the quintessential armchair critic by discrediting us of possessing the basic understanding of how interactive sessions work and the kind of money involved in organizing the same. You are sitting miles away having no idea whatsoever how the placements have been handled in the college. We know what the industry standards are and a single session does not even nearly cost as much as you think it does. (You used the words ‘sessions’ and ‘workshops’, dropping the plural would cut it more as there was only a single incident of something of that kind happening)

It is sad to see that just because you gained aplenty from this institute you are ready to belittle the problems and issues faced by the students who were your juniors at some point of time when you don’t even know about the issue at hand.

This batch was still okay and dealing with the sheer ineffectiveness and impotence of the CRC, but goading about a good placement session in an English daily was equivalent to rubbing salt in the wounds. Another big error that no one is talking about is the fact that how they have cited Mindcrest to be an international law firm which it is clearly not. It is an LPO and a legal services provider and calling it an international law firm is misrepresentation of the highest order. (Out of the 20 people that were selected, not even 5 have gone on to join the organization)

The only request that I have from you is to please not be an armchair critic and put down those rose tinted glasses that you see the college with. They have fudged it up big time, there are no two ways about it.

Hi.
Well this is as accurate as it gets, but a better job could have been done, if you had cited the report sent to NIRF on placements.

Anyways,. dear ilnuites. This dismal placements is because you are too laid-back and lazy. Get your ass off your back. While few are overactive, most of you show nill interest in law and after-college initiatives. Hell, while you know the issues with CRC, nobody cares to get into the CRC and help devise new ideas and brainstorm for recruitment.

ILNU while might not be doing good at job front has developed, an amazing networks of social workers, fellows, educators and litigators. You probably don’t know about that. That’s an edge. But not a job right crybabies?

ILNU also has litigators all over India, while big college students run after jobs, our people who are as talented start after litigation (in a much bigger proportion). That’s an edge but no effort to harness it.

Grow up. Create a circle of litigators across country. You are as talented. Work hard, apply to firms if you want jobs, grow your skills. Seniors take your own sessions in canteen, who stops you? Technology is at your disposal. Milli and Ankit are there, why the hell would you dumb**ks place confidence in Shailja Tripathi?

Come on. I hope this year you will smarten up. And individual initiatives have shown us success everywhere. Why not placements?

It’s nice that this post came out. Stop blaming my dear juniors. Start doing. Maybe your joining can do as good for CRC as Yashos joining has done.

Libertatem Magazine serves as a legal awareness resource for all, ranging from Students to Academicians to Practicing Advocates. Libertatem Magazine helps in the formulation of opinions and prepares individuals for a journey through our in-depth scrutinized content on almost all the topics including political, legal, social and a plethora of other matters of national & international significance.